文

Tap the pinyin to hear it

language; culture; writing; formal; literary; gentle; (old) classifier for coins; Kangxi radical 67

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Pictograph (象形字)

A tattooed chest, representing writing

Components 亠乂

literature · Heisig RSH #1315

top hat + sheaf — as a component also called: Highlander

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
中文	Zhōng wén	Chinese language
课文	kè wén	text; CL:篇[pian1]
文山区	Wén shān Qū	Wenshan District in Taipei 臺北市\|台北市[Tai2 bei3 Shi4], Taiwan
文水县	Wén shuǐ Xiàn	Wenshui, a county in Lüliang City 呂梁市\|吕梁市[Lu : 3 liang2 Shi4], Shanxi
人文学	rén wén xué	humanities
文山市	Wén shān Shì	Wenshan, a county-level city in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture 文山壯族苗族自治州\|文山…
人文	rén wén	humanities; culture; humanistic
文人	wén rén	cultivated individual; scholar; literati
天文学家	tiān wén xué jiā	astronomer
文县	Wén Xiàn	Wen County or Wenxian, a county in Longnan City 隴南市\|陇南市[Long3 nan2 Shi4], Gansu
天文学	tiān wén xué	astronomy
文山	Wén shān	see 文山壯族苗族自治州\|文山壮族苗族自治州[Wen2 shan1 Zhuang4 zu2 Miao2 zu2 Zi4 zhi4 zhou1]; see 文山區\|文山区[Wen2…
文学家	wén xué jiā	writer; man of letters; CL:個\|个[ge4]
文水	Wén shuǐ	see 文水縣\|文水县[Wen2 shui3 Xian4]
水文	shuǐ wén	hydrology
文山会海	wén shān huì hǎi	a mountain of paperwork and a sea of meetings (idiom)
人文地理学	rén wén dì lǐ xué	human geography
文安县	Wén ān Xiàn	Wen'an, a county in Langfang City 廊坊市[Lang2 fang2 Shi4], Hebei
文学	wén xué	literature
天文学大成	Tiān wén xué Dà chéng	the Almagest by Ptolemy

These characters use 文 as their sound component — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
文 sound part	wén	culture, literature, writing
纹	wén	line, stripe; pattern, decoration; wrinkle
刘	liú	to kill, to destroy; surname
蚊	wén	mosquito, gnat
坟	fén	grave, mound, bulge; bulging
汶	wèn	a river in Shandong province
忞	mǐn	to psych up; to steel one's nerves
紊	wěn	tangled; confused, disordered
玟	mín	gem, jade-like stone
炆	wén	to simmer, to cook over a slow fire
雯	wén	cloud patterns; storm clouds